Occupational exposures to new dry cleaning solvents: High-flashpoint hydrocarbons and butylal.

ABSTRACT: The dry cleaning industry is moving away from using perchloroethylene. Occupational exposures to two alternative dry cleaning solvents, butylal and high-flashpoint hydrocarbons, have not been well characterized. We evaluated four dry cleaning shops that used these alternative solvents. The shops were staffed by Korean- and Cantonese-speaking owners, and Korean-, Cantonese-, and Spanish-speaking employees. Because most workers had limited English proficiency we used language services in our evaluations. In two shops we collected personal and area air samples for butylal. We also collected air samples for formaldehyde and butanol, potential hydrolysis products of butylal. Because there are no occupational exposure limits for butylal, we assessed employee health risks using control banding to

SUBMITTER: Ceballos DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5511734 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature